On vacation a few years ago, my wife and I went to Snoqualmie Falls near Seattle. It is a truly beautiful waterfall with breathtaking views and a nice trail down to the bottom of the falls. I will forever remember the rocks that the water hit every day for years upon years and the gradual erosion of the rocks as the water washed over them every day. You will never be able to see the erosion with the naked eye. It is not something that can be observed, yet the evidence says the erosion is there and will continue.
Learning is a lot like erosion.
It requires high saturation levels to see movement. COVID essentially removed the saturation levels for a lot of kids. They need academic saturation that is constant and compulsory. The rocks eventually erode due to the relentless stream that passes over the waterfall every day. Time is then crucial and integral to ensuring saturation levels are high. You can increase saturation by:
- Using technology in a sophisticated way ensures students are receiving academic content. Districts I have worked with have assigned MindPlay for students as homework and met with parents to discuss how important it is.
- Create fluency contests and find who reads the fastest with comprehension. Do you want kids to read more? Get them to read faster with less difficulty.
- Reading time during the day. Schedule a time for older kids to read.
Unprecedented times require unprecedented solutions.
I will be the first in line for precedented times, but things are hard and require patience and perseverance. Acceleration of erosion does happen when the water moves faster over the rocks. Learning is a complicated measurement, and it cannot always be measured. We must trust that saturating them in academic content will, in fact, move them above and beyond their grade level.
Ty Duncan – MindPlay Business Development
